RECORD REVIEW: Tyranny is Tyranny

TYRANNY IS TYRANNY
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

The fact that Tyranny is Tyranny took the subtitle of Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism for the name of their latest full-length gives you a pretty good idea where this band comes from politically. Musically, they come from a bleak post-hardcore region of noisy sludge. Geographically, they hail from Madison, WI, which has a fair bit of snowy sludge for a good chunk of the year. I lived in Madison for a stretch recently and was able to catch this band of raging lefties in action a few times. One show was at Mr. Roberts, which Chicagoans should imagine as the Mutiny only with Packers/Brewers garb and signage instead Bears/Cubs.

The album contains only five songs, but they are all either mini-epics or full-on multi-part tunes that push the album past the 40 minute mark. Throaty screaming about the ills of capitalism running unchecked and amuck provides much of the subject matter. The album opens with "Or Does it Explode" a reference to the poem "Harlem" with lyrics inspired by two other Langston Hughes poems, "Lenox Avenue Mural" and "Let America Be America Again". The second track, "She Who Struggles," concerns itself with J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program. It opens slowly with sparse instrumentation before bursting into rage. The album is not all full-on metal plodding, "Pillar of Cloud Pillar of Fire" features a somber trumpet as it builds and collapses. "Victory Will Defeat You" ends the album over the course of  a nearly fifteen minute march.

Being in a band can feel like a long hard slog sometimes and Tyranny is Tyranny delivers a good forceful pounding which post hardcore fans will enjoy regardless of their politics,

Photo by Bronson Karaff